Living Up to the Standards You Expect From Your Team

Posted on June 10, 2013 by institute B

I work with entrepreneurs every day. And I see a lot of lip service. Everybody says they want success and audacious results. But very few have the courage to actually hold up the mirror. Instead they look outside themselves for results. ‘If only my designer was better.’ ‘If only this customer would use my product better.’ ‘When I get the right team together…’ They are so lost in reasons and rationalizations and excuses that they are failing as leaders.

But the system they have been taught to work within is also failing them. Take business schools for instance. In business school we learn that businesses exist to deliver profit to shareholders. But so many corporations have lost their pathway to actually contributing value to society. They live in a world of scarcity – I have profits, you don’t. I get 70%, you get 30%. I win, you lose.

Abundance is a world where we create value throughout our supply chain for the benefit of all stakeholders. Corporations living in abundance seek opportunities to embed generosity into their corporate structure and work to making the pie bigger for all parts of the supply chain. Studies have shown that this attitude benefits shareholders multiple times better than living in scarcity. This is what we are a stand for at iB.

Successful companies share a common link
My business partners at institute B have played important roles in the development of very successful companies. The companies we were involved with had amazing products. But so do many other less successful companies. So amazing products alone are not enough. These companies also had great marketing. But so do less successful companies. Ok, so we know marketing is not enough. These companies had serendipitous timing in the marketplace. But they all had competition so that in itself was not enough.

What about a business model that allows for cash flow? Great people? Tight operations? Great values? Again, all important, but not enough. What about all these elements together? Products, marketing, business model, great people, values - some companies have all these things and still fail.

So what is the common link in successful companies? What is the key ingredient in building a success machine? Culture. Audacious results stem from an organizational culture of execution — founded upon personal responsibility — built on relationships — grounded in abundance.

Take responsibility for being great
Want results? Big results? Audacious results? Fast? The solution is less complicated than you might think. Simply be better. Behave differently. Hold yourself to a higher standard. Gandhi said, “be the change you want to see in the world.” While many entrepreneurs are high performers, they often fail to live up to the standards that they expect of their team. Your company, your team, your culture is a manifestation of YOU. How you behave. How you conduct yourself. In good times and in bad. Corporations who are successful have built positive organizational cultures that get sh*t done by seeing thousands of people working as one.

As trite as it may sound, at the end of the day you are responsible for your company’s success, culture, brand, results, and limitations. No excuses. No justification.

Every entrepreneur I have met works hard. I have no doubt you do as well. But if you want audacious results it’s not about working harder. It’s about working different. So grab a mirror and hold it to yourself. Have the courage to be responsible. Only then will you achieve the results you truly deserve.

Written by: Darrell Kopke, Skool Principal